Appropriations Summary |
Actual[1] |
Recommended |
Savings |
Interdepartmental Grants/Transfers |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
Federal Revenues |
$5,500,000 |
$6,565,920 |
$-1,065,920 |
Special Revenue Funds |
$125,573,850 |
$120,706,970 |
$4,866,880 |
General Fund/General Purpose |
$1,812,271,316 |
$1,524,286,152 |
$287,985,164 |
Gross Appropriation |
$1,943,345,166 |
$1,651,559,042 |
$291,786,124 |
The Higher Education budget directly funds a portion of the operations of Michigan’s 15 public four-year universities. In addition, the budget also contains appropriations for the following programs: the Martin Luther King, Jr. — Cesar Chavez - Rosa Parks College Day Program; the Martin Luther King Jr. — Cesar Chavez - Rosa Parks Future Faculty Fellowship Program; the Grant and Financial Aid Program; and various state and regional programs — all of which should be slated either for elimination or reduction.
As in the case of Michigan’s community colleges, the rate of increase in higher education funding has far exceeded the rate of increase in enrollment and inflation. To remedy this problem, expenditures should be retroactively indexed to enrollment and inflation. This would produce an immediate and long overdue savings for Michigan taxpayers, and encourage changes that would increase the efficiency of these institutions.